The New York University baseball team battled to a 14-13 win over the University of Rochester at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships in Sanford, FL, on Tuesday, March 10.
The victory lifted the Violets to a .500 record overall (3-3) and to 2-1 in the UAA.
NYU's second straight victory wasn't easy, as the Yellowjackets (1-2, 1-2), erased a seven-run deficit to tie the score at 12-12 after seven innings. However, a two-run eighth by the Violets on RBIs from
David Wagner and
Jeremy Wayne put NYU back in the lead.
Matthew Millus came on in the ninth and recorded his third save, but not before Rochester scored a run and loaded the bases with two outs. That's when Millus bared down and induced a fly ball to left field to end the slugfest.
"We're trying to find the right situations for our guys, and I don't know if Matt has ever pitched in back-to-back games,"
said Head Coach Doug Kimbler. Millus also recorded the save in Monday's 2-1 win over Brandeis University. "But, he made the pitch when he needed to." Michael Vokulich, who notched the Violets' first victory of the season on February 14 vs. Oglethorpe University, got his second start of the season on Tuesday. But, after allowing only one run over the first four innings, he struggled in the fifth and allowed four more and the Violets fell behind 5-3. NYU had taken a three-run lead in the first on a wild pitch and RBIs by
CJ Picerni and Wagner.
"It was Mike's second outing and he had a long break in between, which is not a perfect situation for a pitcher," Kimbler explained. "But he fought through it the whole way."
Despite a nine-run fifth for the Violets, highlighted by a two-run double by
Adrian Spitz and a two-run single by Vokulich, the Yellowjackets scored five in the sixth inning and two in the seventh to tie the game at 12-12 before the late-game heroics gave NYU the victory.
"Everything was up and down in this game," Kimbler said. "We went ahead. We went down. We got back ahead. It was just one of those games that if you stay in the moment, good things will happen." NOTABLES:-
Matthew Wells picked up the victory by pitching a scoreless eighth inning.
- Spitz finished 3-for-5 with two RBIs, two runs scored and a stolen base.
- Picerni went 3-for-4 with three runs scored, a walk and RBI. He is now batting .389.
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Christian Bloom also had three hits and leads the team with a .412 average.
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Jake Smith scored two runs and stole his fourth base of the season.
The Violets return to UAA action tomorrow when they face Washington University-St. Louis at 5:00 pm.
